Science

‘Janitor Satellite’ and ‘Trash Collector’: Ideas to Clean Up Space of Dangerous Junk

Ideas Moving Forward to Clean Space of Junk

Artist rendition of debris in Earth's orbit (Image: University of Southampton)

A company that monitors the larger pieces of junk in space estimates that there are tens of thousands dead pieces of equipment floating around. As excited and worried as Earthlings all get when a bus-sized piece of equipment is set to fall to back Earth, to some, that’s just one less piece cluttering space.

(Related: 3D film will shoot space junk into your face)

Txchnologist reports aerospace engineer Bill Ailor with Aerospace Corp., which tracks large space debris, as saying even smaller pieces hitting a spacecraft could render it dead given the speed with which they travel:

Because any spacecraft that came into contact with one of these objects would immediately become junk itself, NASA must schedule launches to avoid large pieces of orbiting trash.

Then there are the random bits of debris not big enough to be tracked. These scraps — millions of them, by some estimates — move at 7-8 kilometers per second. “It’s like a bullet,” says Ailor. As with bullets, it’s their velocity that makes them dangerous. “I would say something on the order of a centimeter or larger could take out a space craft depending on where it hits,” he continues.

Ideas Moving Forward to Clean Space of Junk

Artist rendition of space junk being created in an explosion. (Image: ESA)

So what are we to do? Clean it up, naturally. There are several ideas being put into action to do so.

One such idea, according to Txchnologist, comes from Eugene Levin, who is senior scientist at STAR Technology and Research Inc. based in South Carolina. Levin’s idea involves manipulating the electromagnetic fields to tether debris as a “trash collector” of sorts. The “Electrodynamic Debris Eliminator” (EDDE) would either bring the junk it collects back to Earth for reuse or would bring it down lower into Earth’s orbit for a “controlled re-entry”:

Much of the remaining technology has already been created and now needs to be tested in orbit. This year, the Naval Research Laboratory plans to deploy and test a kilometer long electrodynamic tether during its “TEPCE” experiment. They also ran a cost analysis on Levin’s EDDE concept and reported that it could remove 2,000 tons of debris from Low Earth Orbit in just over a decade for about $84 million.

Swiss scientists also announced plans Wednesday to launch a “janitor satellite” specially designed to get rid of space junk. The 10-million-franc ($11-million) satellite called CleanSpace One — the prototype for a family of such satellites — is being built by the Swiss Space Center at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology in Lausanne, or EPFL.

Here’s how CleanSpace One would work:

Launch of the satellite is expected within three to five years and its first tasks will be to grab two Swiss satellites that were launched in 2009 and 2010 but will be phased out of use, EPFL said. The U.S. space agency NASA says more than 500,000 pieces of spent rocket stages, broken satellites and other debris are orbiting Earth. Txchnologist points out that the floating junk is still technically private property, making who pays for what and how it is cleaned up a challenge.

Space junk has collided with satellites at least twice: In 1996, a French satellite was damaged by a rocket fragment, and in 2009, a satellite owned by U.S.-based Iridium Communications was destroyed in a collision with a derelict Russian satellite.

Watch this demonstration of the 2009 collision:

“It has become essential to be aware of the existence of this debris and the risks that are run by its proliferation,” said Claude Nicollier, an astronaut and EPFL professor.

Building the satellite means developing new technology to address three big problems, scientists say.

The first hurdle has to do with trajectory: The satellite has to be able to adjust its path to match that of its target. EPFL said its labs are looking into a new ultra-compact motor that can do this.

Next, the satellite has to be able to grab hold of and stabilize the debris at high speeds. Scientists are studying how plants and animals grip things as a model for what would be used.

And, finally, CleanSpace One then has to be able to guide the debris, or unwanted satellites, back into Earth’s atmosphere, where both the Swiss-made satellite and the floating garbage it collects would burn on re-entry.

The Swiss Space Center’s director, Volker Gass, said it hopes to someday “offer and sell a whole family of ready-made systems, designed as sustainably as possible, that are able to de-orbit several different kinds of satellites.”

It remains to be seen how cost-effective the satellites are since each one would be destroyed after its mission, but governments might provide some funding if governments agree to rules to limit debris.

In 2007, China purposely destroyed one of its own satellites with a missile in a test, putting an estimated 150,000 smaller pieces of debris into space and 3,000 big enough to be tracked by radar on the ground.

More recently, Russia’s $170 million planned Mars moon probe got stranded in Earth’s orbit after its Nov. 9 launch. Efforts by Russian and European Space Agency experts to bring it back to life failed. It was one of the heaviest and most toxic pieces of space junk ever to crash to Earth.

There have been no officially confirmed reports of anyone being hit by it on Earth, but the problem it poses has slowly gained traction in political circles in the decades since the space age began more than a half-century ago.

The European Union has proposed its own draft rules for operating in space and the United States views that document as a starting point.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned last month of the space environment is threatened by space junk, and said the U.S. will hold talks with the EU to set informal rules aimed at limiting debris.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Comments (29)

  • ForSuchATimeAsThis
    Posted on February 16, 2012 at 5:06pm

    Just send all the OWS folks up there to do the job. THAT oughtta keep ‘em busy for awhile! ;D

    Report Post » ForSuchATimeAsThis  
  • jcizarter
    Posted on February 16, 2012 at 3:32pm

    I wish our politicians and lobbyists were out their cleaning up this debris for a few years. The could finally do something productive instead of thinking of ways to make my life more miserable each and every day.

    Report Post » jcizarter  
  • Red herring
    Posted on February 16, 2012 at 10:53am

    Does anyone else here see a security risk in having another country with the capability of bringing down any satellite? The junk clean up is a good idea, but how do you prevent this capability from falling into the wrong hands?
    Oops… we didn’t mean to take out your military communications satellite!

    Report Post »  
    • GPS-Tech
      Posted on February 16, 2012 at 3:34pm

      The iridium satellites are what the “satellite phones” link to for their signal. Far more important systems use the iridium network also.

      Report Post » GPS-Tech  
  • Mr.Fitnah
    Posted on February 16, 2012 at 9:21am

    Until Islam has been eradicated, the best hope for other worlds is a worsening Kessler Syndrome.

    Report Post » Mr.Fitnah  
  • sirfixaflat1
    Posted on February 16, 2012 at 8:49am

    Obviously, they need to design a remote controlled satellite that will be maneuverable in order to catch up to or intercept debris then sling it into an orbit that will send the debris towards the sun. Let gravity do the rest. Obviously, we will have to send up fuel pods for the satellite (Oxygen and Hydrogen seperately) to rendezvous with which will not be that difficult to do. It is all about the buck though….and responsibilty of who put the stuff up there in the first place!

    I bet aliens take one look at that mess out there and head towards the next potential solar system!

    Report Post »  
    • GPS-Tech
      Posted on February 16, 2012 at 3:38pm

      I can guarantee you that is not what it looks like in that picture. If it were true you would see thousands of glittering points of light in the early evening sky.

      Report Post » GPS-Tech  
    • john koenig
      Posted on February 16, 2012 at 10:32pm

      Not necessarily. How much of the debris is is white or metallic? Then there’s the size factor. Small debris won’t be seen at all regardless of reflectivity. Just look at how difficult it is for the layman to spot satellites smaller than the ISS with the naked eye.

      Report Post » john koenig  
  • Gonzo
    Posted on February 16, 2012 at 8:20am

    Sounds great, as long as the Chinese pay for it.

    Report Post » Gonzo  
  • Jenasus
    Posted on February 16, 2012 at 3:21am

    Have you seen the light circling the Sun?
    There is a light circling the Sun. There is also grayish black filter that covers the Sun for a second after the light has gone around the Sun a few times. This is contunially going on.
    It is really hard to look at the Sun these days because the light from the Sun is being refractured from the nano particles of aluminum which makes the Sun light look really bright.
    The nano particles of aluminum are from the Chemtrails that are poisoning our air, water and food.

    Report Post » Jenasus  
  • Gumbercules
    Posted on February 16, 2012 at 12:06am

    Somebody needs to inform the Swiss that the ‘s’ in ‘debris’ is silent.

    Report Post » Gumbercules  
  • tkwaldenmaier
    Posted on February 15, 2012 at 10:26pm

    Why don’t they use a giant electromagnet?

    Report Post »  
    • SgtB
      Posted on February 16, 2012 at 12:01am

      Not everything is magnetic. I say that we should send up giant sheets of a gel like material set in an orbit so that all the small debris gets embedded into the sheet which is easy to track and avoid as well as easy to maintain as no maintenance is necessary. The sheet will just orbit and “catch” debris. It doesn’t need any kind of computer guided thrusters or a grapple. KISS is my motto and such a device would mimic a more organic process and take far less energy, management, and resources.

      Report Post » SgtB  
    • jb.kibs
      Posted on February 16, 2012 at 12:32am

      exactly.

      Report Post »  
    • 9111315
      Posted on February 16, 2012 at 9:43am

      Fly paper that will stop a 45ACP?

      Report Post »  
  • Think It Thru
    Posted on February 15, 2012 at 8:36pm

    How about those Dyson vacuum guys, I bet they could figure a good solution.

    Report Post »  
  • Mary Just
    Posted on February 15, 2012 at 8:24pm

    A few years back China launched a missile from earth out to space and blew up an old satellite creating 100s of thousands if not millions of parts of debris orbiting earth. Just one of these particles could penetrate our satellites and essentially destroy it. Thus eliminating the need to compete with the US in defensive satellite launches. Our supremacy in space was reduced dramatically. All this happened with moronic Americans watching their favorite television show.

    Go ahead morons vote for Obama so he can reduce the nuclear missiles by 80 % see where it gets you.

    Report Post »  
    • VoteBushIn12
      Posted on February 16, 2012 at 12:17am

      80% less nuclear missiles on the earth?

      YES PLEASE!

      Report Post » VoteBushIn12  
    • 9111315
      Posted on February 16, 2012 at 9:57am

      We‘ve already had an 84% reduction.

      Peak in 1967 at 31,255 Nukes. Current levels at 5,133, an 84% reduction.

      April 2010 START treaty already reduces numbers to 1,550. A 95% reduction.

      Now some want to reduce to 400 Nukes, a 99% reduction.

      We are talking about a 99% reduction! Really!

      Report Post »  
    • Krutch
      Posted on February 16, 2012 at 11:00am

      @ voteinbush
      Only US nukes are to be eliminated! Russia and others won’t reduce thiers and Iran is about to get some. We are going back to the ‘50’s era in the amount of weapon capability. Only the US is going to be naked!
      Then we can be threatened into submission by any nuke power.

      Report Post »  
    • Mary Just
      Posted on February 16, 2012 at 11:43am

      Jeesh, vote bush in 12. I think that statement proves what a genius they are. Just another moron who does not know that Obama wants to reduce the amount of US missiles by 80 %. Most likely Bushin12 is a socialist progressive liberal Demonrat Party member.

      Report Post »  
  • Lateris
    Posted on February 15, 2012 at 7:52pm

    In 2014 a plasma engine will be tested in space that could get us to Mars in 39 days folks. The future of space travel is right around the corner.

    Report Post »  
    • tzion
      Posted on February 16, 2012 at 2:37am

      I‘m assuming that’s when Mars is close by. It’s not always that close.

      Report Post »  
    • jaxum4
      Posted on February 16, 2012 at 1:34pm

      Considering the atmosphere and temperature variance on Mars landing and exploration would be a nightmare, Until our technology catches up with the necessary requirements, orbital exploration would be the only option. Of course that would gather a great deal of information, but I wonder if it would be enough of what we don’t know already to justify the expense.

      Report Post »  
  • fuzzy20841
    Posted on February 15, 2012 at 7:14pm

    Hillary is on it! Problem solved! Fret no more!

    Report Post »  
  • shogun459
    Posted on February 15, 2012 at 6:07pm

    IF you cannot control the internet and cable news from washington with regulation, (the front door),

    find another way to take them out, (go over the fence).

    Report Post » shogun459  
  • shogun459
    Posted on February 15, 2012 at 6:05pm

    Why would Hillary want to put a Junk eating robot in space?

    I wonder if it could eat TV and Cable Satellites.

    Awww Oops sorry not Cable News till we replace the satillites, say in a couple of months.

    Report Post » shogun459  

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